Many Type 2 diabetics who are trying to lose weight skip eating breakfast thinking this is the best way to cut their calorie intake. The key to successful weight loss is the total number of calories you take in each day. Skipping breakfast will set you up to feel hungry and overeat at lunch, and then your result will be more negative than positive. Instead of skipping breakfast, why not choose a better breakfast?
Do you believe in a “perfect breakfast?” This isn’t a trick question. Whether there is or isn’t such a thing is a matter of opinion. But for the sake of this discussion, let’s assume the perfect breakfast exists. What would the perfect breakfast include?
Before we talk about food options, it’s important to go over what makes a quality breakfast. Firstly, many people consider breakfast to be the most important meal of the day. By eating breakfast, you are breaking the overnight fast, since there’s a good chance you don’t wake up in the middle of the night to eat. Whether or not breakfast is important isn’t for us to say, although we believe it’s not necessarily an “essential” meal.
For those who regularly eat breakfast, what makes a quality meal? While eating something tasty or satisfying is surely on your list, you must not forget the nutritional perspective. After all, you should be eating to nourish your body first, and please your taste buds second. If there are three components to a perfect breakfast, they are…
- a meal including foods rich in vitamins and minerals,
- a meal not too filling; eating too much can upset you or be counterintuitive to your weight loss plans
- your breakfast should not aggressively spike your blood sugar.
Often, these components are disregarded. Which means most breakfasts are not quality meals. Eating a bagel on an empty stomach is detrimental to your blood sugar, so it shouldn’t be part of your meal. Even worse are muffins or butter biscuits, which also contain a high dose of calories.
Instead, the perfect breakfast should include…
- fruits,
- Greek or plain yogurt,
- one slice of whole-wheat bagel, with a
- moderate amount of peanut butter for its healthy fats.
Eggs are also a great breakfast option. The problem with them, however, is they are often accompanied by bacon, sausages, or bread. It’s fine to have a “complete” breakfast on occasion, but it’s likely an issue if you are eating filling meals consistently first thing in the morning. If you are trying to lose weight or treat blood sugar matters related to Type 2 diabetes, it’s crucial to moderate your portions.
With that said, if you have your second meal much later in your day with no snacking beforehand, you can be more flexible with your breakfast choices. It’s irrelevant whether or not the “perfect breakfast” is a real thing. But you should make sure what you do eat in the morning is conducive to stable blood sugar and good health.